Indonesia's Problem
Is Now Political

By

Jamie Mackie

Updated Jan. 9, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

The political fallout from the financial crisis that has swept over Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia since mid-1997 may finally be about to overwhelm President Suharto. The rupiah has collapsed disastrously since the Indonesian president's unconvincing budget speech on Tuesday, dropping by one-fifth of its value yesterday alone. The 76-year-old leader has survived crises before, but the crumbling of the currency could deliver the coup de grace that had earlier seemed hard to imagine.